A water main break and sinkhole this morning have caused significant damage at 10th and Gordon streets in Allentown, according to the city's water department and emergency officials.

Buildings in the area, including some homes, are being evacuated and the gas company, UGI, has been called. So far, four homes have been deemed unsafe, emergency radio reports indicate.

Police said there appears to be structural damage to one of the affected homes.

"Everybody is up there investigating the sinkhole and half the block is evacuating just to be on the safe side," Assistant Chief Daniel Warg said.

Allentown sinkholeWorkers started digging up the street in the area of a water main break and sinkhole that damaged houses and affected graves in Union and West End Cemetery on Thursday afternoon in Allentown.

Dwayne Glover, 44, of 345 N. 10th St., said when he woke up about 7:40 this morning, he had no water pressure. He walked down to his basement, which was flooded, he said. He went to shut off the main valve and he stepped through the basement's concrete floor, he said.

He called the city, which sent a plumber and emergency workers.

Glover tried to take his dogs out for a walk, but couldn't get through the door. He later was told the house had shifted, making the doors hard to open.

When he eventually got outside about 8 o'clock, he didn't see anything across the street, but soon after a sinkhole opened near a white car parked next to a cemetery that runs along North 10th Street. When that hole opened, Glover said, the water stopped flowing into his basement.

Glover and his twin 10-year-olds had to leave the house and are uncertain when they can return, Glover said.

"My house is getting the worst of it," he said.

Residents in the 300 block of North 10th Street will not have water until further notice. Streets are closed between Ninth and 11th and Chew to Liberty, the water department said.